Supporting building the Salvation Army's Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, N.J.

Although the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation became a national philanthropy in 1972 and has operated on a national scale since then, it also has continued funding a limited number of local institutions and projects in the New Brunswick area and throughout New Jersey. It does so in part to honor the legacy of its founder, and in part to recognize the special responsibilities to the communities and the state in which it is located.This grant will help meet the required local $10-million match and will be used toward the total estimated $42 million cost of constructing the Salvation Army's 120,000-square-foot Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, New Jersey. The Salvation Army USA received $1.6 billion from the estate of Joan Kroc to construct 25 state-of-the-art community centers in underserved neighborhoods in the United States, with the stipulation that the this money will partially be used for construction and operating reserves for each center, and that each center-sponsoring organization will raise $10 million in local philanthropic support. Through a national competition, the Salvation Army in Camden received $59 million ($32 million for construction and $27 million for the operating reserve) to build a community center to serve low-income families in Camden, Burlington and Gloucester Counties. To be situated on a remediated brownfield, the center will include a health clinic, full-size gymnasium, indoor competition pool and water park, black box theater, plaza for community gatherings, media center, learning center, teaching kitchen for the culinary arts, choice-food pantry, center for early childhood education, teen center, senior center, and athletic fields.